The deputy chief executive of Generation Rent claims to have suffered “horrendous exploitation” at the hands of lettings agents.
Dan Wilson Craw - writing on the Left Foot Forward website - says: “Many of us who have tried finding a new place to live in the past couple of years have encountered horrendous exploitation at the hands of letting agents trying to wring every last drop of extra rent from the overheated market. Being asked to bid against other renters or offer multiple months’ rent up front is now commonplace.”
His article on the website - which describes itself as “a space for progressive ideas and values across and outside of parties” - the Generation Rent leader claims that thanks to high rents “young adults trying to start a career in a city are being turned away by landlords and letting agents and forced back to their parents’ homes, missing out on valuable opportunities at a pivotal time in their lives.”
Wilson Craw says landlords and agents can effectively name their price on rents and “threaten a Section 21 eviction” for existing tenants not wanting to pay, and he dismisses tribunal appeals because ”Section 21 trumps everything.”
He praises the nationalist government in Scotland for introducing a long-term system of rental control - now going through the Scottish Parliament - but is wary of Labour’s manifesto promises to enable tenants to challenge unreasonable rents.
He asks: “There is a huge question of what would constitute ‘unreasonable’. Surely, rent the tenant could not afford to pay, i.e. because their income had risen at a lower rate, would count – but it would be incredibly concerning if Labour’s commitment was simply to allow the existing tribunal system to step in once Section 21 goes, leaving the landlord’s ‘finger-in-the-air’ market rent as this benchmark instead.
“What would be fairer, and prevent renters needing to go through the extra bureaucracy of challenging rents, would be to place an annual limit on how much a landlord could raise the rent by, to the lower of wage growth or consumer price inflation. This would keep rents in line with affordability.”
He is also critical of Labour’s bid - just a few weeks ago - to amend the Conservative government’s ill-fated Renters Reform Bill to make landlords “advertise a single rent figure in advance and be prevented from creating or encouraging bids that exceed that price.”
Wilson Craw writes: “It’s not by any means ‘rent control’ because ultimately landlords would set the rent when they advertise a property. And it would only tackle one symptom of the overall shortage of homes which is creating a seller’s market that invites this exploitation in the first place. But it would stamp out the worst profiteering by letting agents, and give tenants assurance that a property that looks affordable will be worth applying for.”
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He had to go through all that? He should be angry with all previous governments in the last 40 years, as they did not spend a penny on building cheap public housing, using instead the public funds to build nuclear submarines and other weapons. Private Landlords have nothing to do with this situation, That's it.
None of these people will criticise Governments/Housing charities/quangos etc. Why? That is where they will "work" for their whole lives. He will never cut his nose off to spite his face. That's what we are dealing with.
Affordability is a standard calculation. Annual salary needs to be at least 30 times monthly rent to pass affordability checks.
A person working 37.5 hours a week on minimum wage @ £11.44 an hour earns £22308 a year and can therefore afford rent of £743 a month. A couple working full time can afford at least £1486 a month. Most people earn more than minimum wage so can afford more. In most parts of the country housing is significantly cheaper than that.
Has Dan Wilson Craw considered the fact that most letting agents and some landlords will recognise his name, do a quick Google search and decide he's potentially too much trouble? They have plenty of better applicants. Isn't it called due diligence? Property letting isn't just about accepting the first person who wants to give you money. It's also about long term harmony and consideration for housemates or neighbours.
What goes around…….
I wouldn't rent to him at any money
If he was paid, note I did not say earned, one hundred times the annual rent I would not rent to him. He claims to have experienced “horrendous exploitation” but gives no actual details.😠
Great post Jo
Yep I rent 3 bedroom flat for £650 a month and a2 bedroom for £600 a month ……. In sunny Bournemouth
I cant even be bothered to comment on this type of stupid crªp any more.
Who's daft enough to rent to him, when you do your tenant checks and he comes up as the chief twit of Generation Rant, you only have yourself to blame when he whines about the strength of the light bulb in the under stair cupboard.
I suggest he takes a trip to New York, the rules on Rent Freezes and eviction on a discretionary basis through the Rent Courts has resulted in absolute chaos.
Firstly supply has nose dived, existing properties are falling into disrepair and the banks when they foreclose are losing money as the property has not been maintained or trashed by the tenants. Any new properties that come on for rent have seen rises in the rent of up to 6 times. As a consequence local employers are having to raise wages and there by prices or simply relocate out of State. Coupled with New York's playing "Sanctuary City" - basically Dinghy immigration but by coach and you can now see why even the former lefty citizens are getting a little upset with the situation.
Yet here we are Labour making the same mistakes to the baying mob...
He sounds like a brave little soldier 😂, that poor guy, it’s akin to the trauma the brave souls met on the sands of Gold and Juno beaches during June 6th 1944 . What a wet 😱
He bangs on as though this is unique to the UK. Go to any major capitol city in the world and it's the same situation, and in the rare cases where there are rent controls, new tenants don't stand a chance because every tenant is hanging on to their rent controlled property like a limpet.
Or subletting it on the quiet!
Dan, the handyman so full of poo what did he ever do to help the housing situation only cause as much damage as possible. Was he celebrating 30 years of Section 21 or no one would have anywhere to rent, no it’s 36 years now where was he then maybe making a horse out of the dog. Hard to imagine he hates Tenants so much he’s contributing to making rents unaffordable, unavailable and driving landlords out, that’s fine put your name down on Social Housing waiting lists.
I have news for you Dan, the struggle is going to get worse because, despite Generation Rent poo-poohing the ‘idle threats’ of a landlord exodus, I am proof and a classic example. Today is actually my last working day in the PRS. Instead of blaming us, take a look at the bigger picture.
Here are some things I’ve said that I never dreamed I’d say:
“Sorry long-term, timely-paying, careful tenants - I have to let you know I won’t be renewing your contract”
(Because RRB has scared me out of the market and I’m selling up)
“Yes, absolutely you can leave several months early, with only 2 weeks notice to me” (Hoorah! Vacant possession before ‘Day One’ of Angela Rayners Section 21 policy)
“I realise it’s not a brilliant time to sell, dear Estate Agent, but I care not a jot!”
(I’m so relieved that I will get a real market price however sluggish - rather than taking a massive hit with a ‘sitting tenant’ or ‘sell-to-a-landlord’ handcuffs)
I’m really sad to completely give up, but I’m too old to gamble with my hard-earned nestegg, too cautious to take any chances on rent controls and too daunted by the onslaught of political punches to stay in.
I for one, know what a valuable, important and often thankless job most landlords do.
May common sense prevail so that you are all supported in the future.
Cheerio. Nic
Good luck Nic!
I think how you feel is how the majority of us feel.
I understand. I have had a property empty for a year. I had to clear all the trouble out with solicitors, court costs and bailiffs. I am not doing that again, let alone all the nonsense RRB. I read the White Paper and got a solicitor that week. I don't want to be around with the clowns who wear the red roses, or those dummies with the blue tree.
Well done you. I'm slowly going in the same direction.
Well done Nic. Having the foresight and the gumption to go through with it takes ballz. But is eminently sensible, seeing the direction of travel the PRS is going in. Most of us are on the same journey as you, albeit at different stages.
Good Luck Nic in whatever you do with a lot less hassle..
Nic - Wishing you all the best for the future. There is no doubt that we have all been well and truly ‘screwed’.
The result of the Rent Reform bill has resulted in rents doubling.
All the private landlords with quality properties have now left the market.
The loss of section 24 and 21 make it not variable for private landlords anymore.
Good luck try to fine a council house. !!!
I don't use a letting agent and I have never rented at a higher figure than advertised. However it's called supply and demand. Supply has fallen for all the reasons we know about, and the only way those remaining can justify the hassle and cost of staying in this business is by raising rents. What hurts landlords also hurts tenants.
So he’s frustrated with the situation he helped create? lol
Horrendous exploitation, it’s market forces dear boy. Try booking a flight in the school holidays, same thing. He comes across as self entitled pr@&k, if it quacks like a duck…..
Dan sticks-in-your Craw will soon be claiming PTSD. I’d love to hear the agent’s/landlord’s version, IF they are brave enough to stick their heads above the parapet.🤔
I an fed up with being horrendously exploited myself. To migitgate that I would draw up a black list of names who will never get in to my property. Names including:
1) Michael Gove
2) Angela Rayner
3) Matt Pennycrook
4) Dan Wilson Craw
5) Polly Bleate
6) Alicia Kennedy
7) Ben Twomey
8) Ben Beadle
9) Anyone else called Ben (they all seem to be a problem)
10) Sandra Bowes-Rennox
11) James Turner
12) Martin Gibbons
You forgot Gibbo!
I did forget Gibbo. I'll add him now.
I did consider adding Putin to the list, but I feel he would be more trustworthy and honourable than those listed above. He probably wouldn't struggle to pay the rent too, and I expect he would heat the house without growing mould everywhere.
M Gove at number 1 would probably be the first choice of many!
Gove will need to find a new place to live shortly. Sadly he should be able to buy or have friend in high places to rent from. How a back stabbing cretin like him would have friends I don't know.
A S
Since he is a residential landlord, commercial landlord, chartered surveyor and self-confessed bore, I am sure he can doss down in one of his own properties or empty commercial premises.
1. Osborne
So you’ve moved back in to your Mum’s 👍🏼
Turner - more rude comments. Bringing genitalia into it just shows your level. You are a bit of a joke on here. So no, you don’t haunt my thoughts or anyone elses’ (perhaps apart from your mum still trying to reason how she gave birth to you).
Where you live is of no interest to me.
You new landlord will soon suss you out and move you on. Then you will have your own little cry. I will never have that problem
😀.
I'd rather grate off my own testicles than rent from the one who styles himself after a notorious convict. I don't fancy getting murdered, because of course your namesake does murder his own tenants. Nice to see I haunt your thoughts though, I hope it keeps you up at night. However, I've just upgraded to a lovely 4 bed 3 bathroom house in one of the most expensive parts of the country, and have never missed a single rent payment in my life (even when I was having to put up with a landlord last year who couldn't care less his entire property was dissolving from the outside in, but he got fined by the council and was then prevented from reletting his property until he'd completed the work, so that was nice, more landlord licencing please, it's very effective), as proven by canopy, so you're missing out due to your own prejudice, which I suspect is a common theme in your life 😂 go on, have a little cry. You'll feel better.
That comment isn't getting deleted, so to whoever keeps deleting it, you're going to have a new full time job. Go on, block my account. Except you can't can you, because you don't have control over your own website, and you've been caught out breaching data protection, once again because you don't have control of your own website. Someone has gone through and changed the URLs of some accounts so they redirect to the original article, but it's been done one by one, and there's plenty of accounts still openly displaying user information. This website is hilarious 😂 this comment won't be getting deleted either. Isn't that right Lyndon 😘
Turner, never mind telling others to get a full time job. You should get off of your bottom and focus on areas to help improve your life and those around you. To grow and shine as an indivdual. To have some accomplishments to look back at and be proud of. You need to get all of the poison out of you. May I suggest joining a church to cleanse your soul. Or perhaps some volunteering work. Exercise can also help. Or perhaps some art like painting. I would probably advise you stop taking any medication that may affect your mental state of mind too.
Being told to "cleanse my soul" by a man named after a literal murderer who's drawn up a list of people they dislike based on them being called Ben 😂 you don't live in reality. I'm a classical pianist, I have all the art I need thanks.
"...who's drawn up a list of people they dislike based on them being called Ben 😂 you don't live in reality." That's called a joke. It has 11 likes. You never get any likes.
"I'm a classical pianist" I doubt that. People that make comments as you do not play the piano. You are the one who does not live in reality.
Nothing about the fact you've named yourself after a tenant murderer on a landlord website? You're a sick individual, I feel sorry for anyone who has to come into contact with you. You can believe whatever you like about me, I really don't care. Also, jokes are traditionally funny. That's probably where you've gone wrong.
Who says I named myself after anyone? My mother gave me my name.
What is this obession with murdering?
Concerning who's sick I don't think you are an appropriate person to take advice from. Society and yourself would be better off if you were locked up in a padded cell where you can vent your anger and keep your purile thoughts to yourself.
Don't give in to hate. It only leads to the dark side.
What would you know about jokes or anything fun. All you are is negative.
Do you really expect me to believe Nicholas Van Hoogstraten is spending his days arguing with people on a landlord website? He's probably off somewhere lobbing grenades at people or failing to build a mansion. So you've clearly got some kind of delusional personality disorder as well. Wonderful. Sell your property as you keep threatening to, do the country a massive favour, if you've even got any, but I'm beginning to believe based on evidence of what you write that you're living some kind of weird delusional fantasy. Probably a basement dweller.
Do you really believe that there is only one Nicholas Van Hoogstraten in the world?
Why can this murdering Van Hoogstraten not be on this website keeping up to date with all of the latest developments?
Why don't you do the world a favour and ....
I actually agree with him , my letting agents are worse than useless, cost me a small fortune and took over 40 viewings to let a maisonette of mine recently
Next time ill just handle it all myself
But did they get you a good tenant George? 1 good one out of 40 ain't bad
Dan the man sounds like the person who still lives with his mummy! Not woke up to the real world & how things work. Being a negative, self absorbed waste of space, thin king the world owes him everything! I had had a shed, he would not be welcomed! Its people like him that are giving Landlords a bad reputation/name. Then this class clown wonders why landlords get annoyed! Talk about S*%t for brains!
Maybe on reference checks, it should state are you link to the waste of space movement (Gen Rent). Then again a simple few questions will give you an idea if that tenant(s) are going to be a nightmare!
Did these people never learn about Supply and Demand curves?
Its a really simply explanation, and would answer their problems.
They complain about renting or buying in areas that are already overpopulated, and it being unfair, however, there are plenty of places to live, where house prices and rents are cheap.
In a world where the internet fairly rules our work, its not like you have to live and rent in Mayfair for example.
Stop blaming landlords and look at the system, however, you cannot build more properties in a place like Mayfair.
Total Tool,
I cannot be bothered adding anymore.
By the way rent increases just come through. Will put it into a legal fighting fund pot for when the Gngr Growler get her hands on PRS.
Perhaps he should directly contact the Build to Rent Corporates for a home!
Margaret, yes he should try Lloyds Bank. They have a large portfolio.
There is nothing wrong with young people living home and saving for their own property, rather than defaulting in paying rent to their lanlords. Dan seems to think the tenants are forced back to their parents by landlords and letting agents. What's wrong with that? Nobody is forcing the tenants. There are not sufficient properties to go around the growing demands. It will get a lot worse. Many Landlords are in their 60's and 70's and no appetite for bad tenants. false surmises by charities and the government, who do not wish to face the true facts of the PRS.
The homeless if you are looking for some where to stay try Carlton Gardens.
I believe its free the last squatter has moved out, no wonder he doesn’t like landlords he don’t like paying rent and I think Liz won’t mind.
So we have a tie Martin Hicks voted Mr Gove No. 1
Grumpy Doug gives it to George Osborne a close run contest not a lot in it.
I’ll give it to Mr Gove although there are other serious contenders, maybe because he lives at No.1, and for free so he should know all about the cost of renting (not) like all those other protagonists who are not landlord but think they know everything about what the landlord should be doing strange that which is why they are not landlords they haven’t a clue all talk.
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